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. . . along the whole lower parts of Virginia, both Carolinas, 

 Georgia and Louisiana, particularly near the sea coast. . . . 

 About the twentieth of March, or earlier if the season be open, 

 they begin to enter Pennsylvania in numerous tho small 

 parties. The migrating flocks are usually observed from day- 

 break to eight or nine in the morning, passing to the north, 

 chattering to each other as they fly along. . . . They continue 

 in small parties to frequent the low borders of creeks, swamps 

 and ponds, till about the middle of April, when they separate 

 in pairs to breed." Nuttall (1840) observes: ''From the 

 beginning of March to April, according to the nature of the 

 season, they begin to visit the northern states in scattered 

 parties, flying chiefly in the morning.'^ Samuels, in 1867, 

 states: "It arrives [in New England] in small flocks, the males 

 preceding the females a week or ten days. On its arrival, it 

 frequents the meadows and swamps, where, from early dawn 

 to twiUght, its song ... is heard." 



Warren (1890) observes that they arrive in Pennsylvania 

 about March 20, the males a few days in advance of the fe- 

 males. Loomis (1892) tells us that in Chester County, S. C, 

 " Unless the season is backward, by the first week [in February] 

 . . . Red-winged Blackbirds are found with increasing regu- 

 larity," and by ''the middle of the month . . . the hosts of 

 Robins and Blackbirds . . . arrive, and females become more 

 numerous." Stone, in 1894, placed the date of spring arrival 

 in Pennsylvania much earlier than either Wilson or Nuttall, 

 stating, "abundant summer resident, arriving in the vicinity 

 of Philadelphia on the first spring-Uke day, sometimes as 

 early as February 6." 



Merrill (1898) states that at Fort Sherman, Idaho, it is 

 "One of the first migrants to appear, as I have seen it on 

 February 22. After remaining two or three weeks these early 

 birds seem to pass on to the north and none are seen until 

 about the first of May, when others, apparently the birds 

 nesting here, arrive." 



Libby (1899, Wisconsin), in his studies of the nocturnal 

 flight of migrating birds, says: "More Swamp Blackbirds 

 were identified than any other." Hoffman (1904, New Eng- 

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